application on the Italian wine sector

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The service-dominant logic perspective for enhancing the e-commerce of wine - A test/application on the Italian wine sector ⁎

Giuseppe Festa , Maria Teresa Cuomo, Gerardino Metallo Dept. of Economic and Statistical Sciences (DISES), University of Salerno (Italy), Via Giovanni Paolo II No. 132, 84084 Fisciano, SA, Italy

A R T I C LE I N FO

A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Wine business Wine marketing E-commerce Service-dominant logic Italian wine market

Developing a framework that could apply the 11 foundational premises of service-dominant logic – SDL – to wine e-commerce, and answer an investigation objective (“Are the most important Italian wineries' e-commerce websites oriented to value cocreation according to SDL?”) are the two aims of this research. Main outcome is a framework for the application of SDL to WECSs (wine e-commerce sites). Subsequent test/ application to the Italian wine sector shows the delay of the most important Italian wineries in focusing on ecommerce, with very few exceptions. Further studies on the application of SDL to WECSs will involve relational, educational, and experiential marketing. The model can work as a checklist for evaluating value cocreation (according to SDL) in WECSs. All the wineries under investigation make heavy use of social media. A conversion strategy of (corporate) social network users into (corporate) social commerce users seems practicable, but only if wine e-commerce is strategic.

1. Introduction Though apparently limited to transactions, e-commerce owes its main success also (and most likely, above all) to the comfort of the global environment of electronic infrastructure (Colla & Lapoule, 2012). Most probably, in fact, the global experience of website purchases is the most important factor for e-commerce (Bilgihan, Kandampully, & Zhang, 2016; Corbitt, Thanasankit, & Yi, 2003; Cox & Dale, 2001). In recent years, the purchase experience (and clearly, the consumption experience, which is often combined with the purchase experience) has become increasingly characterized by value cocreation (Jaakkola, Helkkula, & Aarikka-Stenroos, 2015), especially if the role of social commerce is considered (Hajli, 2014; Pappas, Mikalef, Giannakos, & Pavlou, 2017). From this point of view, the idea of “serving”, which is the basis of service-dominant logic (SDL), when assuming that this serving is mutual, seems to be one of the most important dimensions of experience (Tynan, McKechnie, & Hartley, 2014; Vargo & Lusch, 2017). On e-commerce websites, thanks to the underlying technology, not only is a transaction more efficient, but the experience can also be more successful than transactions by other means (Blázquez, 2014). Traditionally, this feature has been considered a limitation for e-commerce due to the aseptic dimension of the technology, but today, with

⁎

smartphones being a normal tool in society, the technological experience has become more and more relevant, with the role of consumers/ purchasers in the technological environment aiming to have major influence (Dolan & Goodman, 2017; Pantano & Priporas, 2016; Thach, Lease, & Barton, 2016). These considerations seem to be true for every kind of product in general and thus even concern the world of wine (Fiore, Vrontis, Silvestri, & Contò, 2016; Pelet & Lecat, 2014). In this respect, it is important to remember that Italy is consistently the most important producer of wine in the world, even in 2017, but this supremacy does not affect the world of wine e-commerce (2i3T, 2016). In the following study, we try to investigate whether the SDL orientation can be adopted as an innovative perspective for enhancing wine e-commerce sites (WECSs). 2. Literature review on service-dominant logic for wine ecommerce Even though other nations are certainly more advanced than Italy in using e-commerce for selling and buying wine (Faraoni, Rialti, & Zollo, 2018), it is important to remember that experiences of failure in this business have also arisen in more developed countries (Cho, Bonn, & Kang, 2014; Gebauer & Ginsburg, 2010), giving evidence of the

Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (G. Festa), [email protected] (M.T. Cuomo), [email protected] (G. Metallo).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.12.077 Received 10 June 2018; Received in revised form 30 December 2018; Accepted 31 December 2018 0148-2963/ © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: Festa, G., Journal of Business Research, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.12.077

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Table 1 Axioms and foundational premises of service-dominant logic. Axiom 1

Axiom 2

Axiom 3 Axiom 4 Axiom 5

FP1 FP2 FP3 FP4 FP5 FP6 FP7 FP8 FP9 FP10 FP11

Service is the fundamental basis of exchange. Indirect exchange masks the fundamental basis of exchange. Goods are a distribution mechanism for service provision. Operant resources are the fundamental source of strategic benefit. All economies are service economies. Value is cocreated by multiple actors, always including the beneficiary. Actors cannot deliver value but can participate in the creation and offering of value propositions. A service-centered view is inherently beneficiary oriented and relational. All social and economic actors are resource integrators. Value is always uniquely and phenomenologically determined by the beneficiary. Value cocreation is coordinated through actor-generated institutions and institutional arrangements.

(Metallo, Cuomo, & Festa, 2007). Moving from the 11 foundational premises of service-dominant logic (Vargo & Lusch, 2004; Vargo & Lusch, 2008; Vargo & Lusch, 2016), a conceptual study on their application to wine e-commerce sites has been developed. We have provided for each premise i) an interpretation with regard to WECSs (wine e-commerce sites), ii) a specific explication/application, and iii) the possible parameter(s) for verification. The interpretation/explication/application of the SDL infrastructure with regard to WECSs has been provided by a theoretical analysis, which has subsequently been the object of an online test involving some Italian wine consumers/purchasers, not only with but also without wine e-commerce experience (to also take into consideration possible reasons for noninvolvement). Consequent comments have been collected, examined, and, if considered valid, integrated. Then, the model was tested by analyzing the WECSs of the 30 most important Italian wineries (Mediobanca, 2017). This test has had two aims: to verify a realistic application of the theoretical model (methodological objective) and to find empirical evidence of the specific state of the art (investigation objective).

difficulty in designing, organizing, and implementing this kind of business model (Pelet et al., 2018). If in the past the main success factors were considered to be, among others, the security of personal financial information regarding risk perception, and website functionality regarding navigation issues (Bruwer & Wood, 2004), then technological development has caused the majority of the attention in managing wine e-commerce sites to become oriented toward electronic service quality (Bressolles & Durrieu, 2010; Canziani & Welsh, 2016). In this evolution, increasing the global reliability of what servicedominant logic would call operant resources (security, usability, quality, and so on) and other elements, even those that are more intangible, seems to contribute to wine e-commerce success (Gack, 2018; Hsiao, 2018): among these elements, the request of consumers/purchasers for trust (Quinton & Harridge-March, 2008; Cosenza, Solomon, & Kwon, 2015) and experience (Santos & Ribeiro, 2012) can be highlighted. With much supporting evidence, the evolution of wine ecommerce environments seems in line with economic tertiarization (Djellal & Gallouj, 2018), being naturally affected by a service-dominant logic perspective (Wang, Lai, & Shou, 2018). In this scenario, the research intuition of imagining wine e-commerce sites as designed according to service-dominant logic has arisen. The idea of designing electronic infrastructures that adopt servicedominant logic is well known, most likely also because information technology solutions allow much greater intangibility than physical organizations (Gummerus, 2010; Jitpaiboon, Dobrzykowski, RaguNathan, & Vonderembse, 2012; Oh & Teo, 2014; Piccarozzi, Abbate, & Aquilani, 2017; Santos, 2003). The use of service-dominant logic for designing an e-commerce solution specifically oriented to wine markets seems to be an innovative contribution to theory and is a scientific perspective not yet investigated by the scientific community, at least to our knowledge, as assumed after several literature reviews in the specific field of “wine e-commerce” (Bodini & Zanoli, 2011; Dinlersoz & Hernández-Murillo, 2005; Li, Yabing, & Lee, 2016; Pelet et al., 2018; Thach, 2009).

4. Theoretical model Service-dominant logic constitutes an innovative and currently wellknown approach to management, marketing, and other competences, in order to analyze, design, and implement business and social solutions that have at their center the concept of service as a process and the concept of serving as an orientation. In this continuous flow, operators manage operand (mainly tangible) resources and operant (intangible) resources within dynamic ecosystems (markets, business networks, and so on), implement continuous services, and have as constant inspiration the concept of mutual serving as a main source of value. The theoretical pillars of SDL are its 11 foundational premises (FP), shown in Table 1. Among them, five foundational premises are also axioms. Naturally, this conceptual infrastructure needs contextualization for every single and specific situation of interest. In the case of wine ecommerce sites, we have proposed the following interpretations and explications/applications (cf. Table 2), adopting a methodology already implemented in the combination of the wine sector (wine tourism in particular) with service-dominant logic (Tommasetti & Festa, 2014). A specific upgrade to this already-used methodology is the provision of the parameter(s) that can constitute evidence of the existence or inexistence of the application of a single FP. The reasoning about “interpretation” concerns the contextualization of every FP to the environment of wine e-commerce or even the vision of wine e-commerce through the SDL perspective. The argument about “explication/application” concerns what a winery conceptually needs, at least basically, in order to enhance the single SDL-FP for its WECS; consequently, the structure of “parameter(s)” concerns what a winery empirically needs, at least basically, in order to implement the single SDL-FP for its WECS. Clearly, concerning the “parameter(s)” item(s),

3. Research purpose and methodology This study aims to pursue a methodological objective (developing a specific framework that could apply the 11 foundational premises of service-dominant logic to wine e-commerce) and answer an investigation objective (“Are the most important Italian wineries' e-commerce websites already oriented toward value cocreation according to SDL?”). Thus, the nature of the research is both theoretical (elaborating on an interpretative/explanatory/applicative model) and empirical (applying such a model to a specific field). More particularly, the specific field of investigation/application at this stage of research refers exclusively to wineries (and not to other types of wine operators, such as intermediaries). Furthermore, the research focus is uniquely on business-toconsumer transactions (and not on business-to-business or consumer-toconsumer transactions) in order to better enhance the possible contribution of wine consumers/purchasers to value cocreation, given the fundamental difference of communication in these kinds of offers 2

3

Actors cannot deliver value but can participate in the creation and offering of value propositions.

FP7

Operant resources are the fundamental source of competitive advantage.

FP4

Value is cocreated by multiple actors, always including the beneficiary.

Goods are a distribution mechanism for service provision.

FP3

FP6

Indirect exchange masks the fundamental basis of exchange.

FP2

All economies are service economies.

Service is the fundamental basis of exchange.

FP1

FP5

SDL FPs

N.

It is very unlikely for a wine e-commerce operator to provide value (and above all, to be competitive with respect to other ecommerce operators) without interacting with other operators

Wine consumers/purchasers always contribute to create value within wine e-commerce offers, and they work, whether consciously or not, with every wine e-commerce operator.

Conceptually, wine e-commerce as a category is a service economy, both in terms of outputs (purchasing wines on the internet) and especially in terms of process (giving more value to this tertiary activity).

In wine e-commerce, ‘secondary’ activities (information provision, knowledge sharing, etc.) use less-evident resources to generate stronger competitive advantages.

The wines underpinning the e-commerce of wine serve as vehicles of distribution (‘vectors’), being evidence of the offer of wine ecommerce, but the benefit of purchasing wine through ecommerce goes beyond the mere acquisition.

Some components of wine e-commerce (wines, prices, logistic conditions, etc.) can ‘overshadow’ the exchange process based on services (outputs) and the service of the services (integration as a flow). Thus, the service component is not immediately visible.

The e-commerce of wine is a category of commerce and is thus an economic exchange that works through a service process, i.e., a series/network/system of operations, activities, and services. The collective outputs of these processes generate consequent satisfaction (or not).

Interpretation

Table 2 An explanatory interpretation for the application of SDL to WECSs (Wine E-Commerce Sites).

In wine-e-commerce, performing a series of effective and valuable operations is always crucial. This process requires interactions between vendors and consumers/purchasers that can result only from the integration of the selling activity into a process continuum, considering information mapping, lurking, learning, seeking, finding, comparing, choosing, and so on, into a global flow of service (Bodini & Zanoli, 2011; Xu, Munson, & Zeng, 2017). A website without success of visibility and/or attractiveness, given an adequate wine quality, usually owes this circumstance to a lack of strategic approach to the internet in general (Capitello, Agnoli, Begalli, & Codurri, 2014). Furthermore, it is possible that the winery reputation gets ‘confused’ with the related e-commerce experience, whereas the wine, even when well known, is merely the object of the exchange. A contrary case in point, although very successful, consists of WECSs where the attractiveness of the site can also enhance the offer of wines that may be interesting, even if not excellent. Wine is the pillar of wine e-commerce. Clearly, a famous wine (or a famous winery) is a huge attraction for a wine consumer/purchaser who wishes to buy a particular wine online. Equally clearly, however, a famous wine or winery is not sufficient to transform a site into a successful wine-e-commerce site: specific advantages are indispensable (Carpio & Lange, 2015; Pelet et al., 2018; Faraoni et al., 2018). A key issue for wineries that are famous from a production point of view but are unable to achieve success in wine e-commerce, lies in the (more competitive) ability to create premises and potentials for quality wine e-commerce sites, preferably integrated within an effective and efficient service system (Bodini & Zanoli, 2011). Consequently, not only sales promotions and service attributes but also service skills and competences (Pelet et al., 2018) are essential for wine e-commerce (Faraoni et al., 2018; Giustiniano & Fratocchi, 2002). A possible risk of wine e-commerce is the underestimation of the wine e-commerce experience as a system of activities, which are in turn a holistic sum of services. They can be outputs (wine assortment, information quality, purchase convenience, logistics flexibility, etc.) or processes (the integrated services of the global electronic environment). Wine e-commerce is a category of commerce (such as wine shops, supermarkets, and so on) but, moreover, has a fundamental basis in e-service and, consequently, immateriality, intellectuality, and knowledge (Allee, 2000). The wine e-commerce experience concerns primarily, although not exclusively, the direct utility that consumers/purchasers can derive from searching, finding, and buying good wines in good wine offers (assortment, convenience, flexibility, advising, being advised, etc.). In addition, wine e-commerce sites contribute actively in terms of information, knowledge, expertise, experience, and sensitivity, pushing operators to adjust their wine e-commerce offers, which constantly change because of the interaction/cooperation among wineries, operators, and consumers/purchasers (Saba, Rolandi, & Pilloni, 2017; Thach, 2009). ‘Creating the system’ is always a veritable mantra in the wine sector, and this is true, at least virtually, for every operator involved in wine's extended supply chain/network, including wine e-commerce

Explication/application Interactive wines list Interactive wines price list Smart shopping cart Online payment Shipment

(continued on next page)

- Comments on the site - Publishing/sharing posts of internal/ external blogs

- Use of Big Data, or at least large databases (log files, cookies, etc.) - Interaction among users

- Description (wines, territories, winemakers' stories, pairings, etc.) - Awards or recognitions - Suggestions by wine experts

- Pleasantness (“look and feel”) - Usability - Security (highlighting secure servers)

- Wine availability - Saving (compared to offline wines) - Additional logistic services

- WECS visibility (ease of reaching the site and the site contents) - WECS attractiveness (involvement and consequent temptation to purchase)

-

Parameter(s)

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4

Value cocreation is coordinated through actorgenerated institutions and institutional arrangements.

FP11

All social and economic actors are resource integrators.

FP9

Value is always uniquely and phenomenologically determined by the beneficiary.

A service-centered view is inherently beneficiary oriented and relational.

FP8

FP10

SDL FPs

N.

Table 2 (continued)

(Festa, Vrontis, Thrassou, & Ciasullo, 2015). Clearly, a single operator can provide an offer with a proposition of potential value but not necessarily generate a real value offer, irrespective of the interaction with partner sites, other subjects (e.g., bloggers), and wine consumers/purchasers (constantly considered cocreators of value). In particular, customers/clients are the most important allies in the service flow, not only as offer beneficiaries (even though only consumers/purchasers can demonstrate whether a wine e-commerce offer is worthy or not), but most of all as comakers (Saba et al., 2017), because for wine consumers/purchasers, the experience of learning and/or self-learning is essential (Thach, 2009). The experience of getting a direct utility (as above described) underpins the overall wine e-commerce experience, which requires additional services beyond the mere sale/purchase to make a wine ecommerce offer both significant and competitive. Service as a customized process, therefore, must be available to favor a personalized experience, sharing and improving the quantity and quality of information and knowledge through interrelational channels (Normann, 2001; Chan & Li, 2010). Through an ongoing interactive relationship with the wine consumer/purchaser, mutual, fruitful, and rewarding exchanges of knowledge are achievable (Canziani & Welsh, 2016). A site of wine e-commerce may coincide with a single winery or may exist along a continuum, with a more or less vast community (Gebauer & Ginsburg, 2001). Obviously, there does not exist a unique solution (“one best solution”), but these environments work essentially as supply systems (of activities, services, and even actors) transversal to the extensive wine environment on the internet (Saba et al., 2017). In other words, a stand-alone WECS will most likely emerge as successful (Canavari, Farneti, Lucchi, & Warren, 2007). Every wine consumer/purchaser arrives at a site with personal knowledge regarding the world of wine, the specific reputation of that specific winery, and most likely with a personal experience about WECSs. Therefore, it is inevitable that the same wine ecommerce system will produce different results for each different wine consumer/purchaser (Hernández, Jiménez, & Martín, 2010). Thus, due to the ‘inconsistency’ in service, it is completely impossible to activate two or more transfers of knowledge in two or more human relationships that are completely identical or even similar. The necessity/opportunity of respecting the norms, rules, and beliefs of the community on the WECS contributes to generate a global atmosphere that can be very worthy for consumers/purchasers (Valkenburg, 2017; Wu, Chen, & Chung, 2010). In truth, this pillar/ driver, even though the newest, is one of the most important elements that has allowed major success for the wine e-commerce in Italy to date, because of wine distribution intermediaries (social commerce) but not (yet) WECSs managed by single wineries.

from the internet, most of all, wine consumers/purchasers, who continuously extract value from the offer by assuming and exchanging information/knowledge, thus generating new value.

In cocreating value on WECSs, consumers/purchasers do respect norms, rules, and beliefs, not only from a top-down perspective but also, above all, from a bottom-up perspective, in terms of the ‘right’ behavior in a specific environment.

The value generated by wine e-commerce is diverse, experiential, contextual, and meaningful for the recipient, i.e., the wine consumer/purchaser.

In wine e-commerce sites, all actors essentially work together as resource integrators to produce and deliver a ‘total’ wine ecommerce offer experience (i.e., from a relational, interactive, and cocreative point of view).

Wine e-commerce, from the perspective of service as an integrated flow of services, must be client-centered (i.e., centered on the wine consumer/purchaser, either individually or collectively) and relate constantly to the client.

Explication/application

Interpretation

- Evidence of the mission and vision of the winery - Evidence of the mission and vision of the WECS - Evidence about ethical codes or ‘community spirit’

- Compliant services - Customer satisfaction analysis

- Evidence of partnerships with other wine operators - Evidence of partnerships with agrofood operators - Evidence of partnerships with nonwine-and-food operators - Wine social commerce

- Customer profiling (account management) - Configurator - Email - Instant Messaging - Skype

- Integration with social networks (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc.) - User-generated content

Parameter(s)

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countries belonging to the ‘world of wine’ (Old or New), both for selling and buying. In recent years, however, even though the turnover figures are still low, some encouraging increases have emerged (Business International, 2015). According to many, the most decisive reasons for this delay are some structural conditions: the absence of diffuse broadband internet, infrequent use of credit cards, and difficulties in logistics for a country that is very variegated from a geographical point of view, where deliveries run mostly on roads. Another reason for this delay, however, certainly derives from the fact that Italian consumers are familiar with ‘live’ wine shopping, and place much importance on the relationship with a ‘consultant’ (producer, wine-seller, sommelier, and so on). For these two reasons (some increase in Italian wine purchasing through e-commerce and the necessity of a functional/emotional involvement in wine shopping), a strong orientation toward value cocreation through service-dominant logic seems necessary and fruitful to overcome the traditional model of wine e-commerce in which competitiveness emerges only from the possibility of comparing wines and prices. Moreover, the most interesting success stories in Italy with regard to wine e-commerce, although still very limited in figures (cf. Table 4), are currently represented by intermediaries (Tannico, Xtrawine, CallMeWine, and many others) and not by direct sales experiences, which seems to be very much behind the cutting edge of business. The only exception is IWB - Italian Wine Brands, which emerges as the best WECS in terms of both SDL (cf. Table 3) and global revenue (cf. Table 4), thus giving some confirmation to the validity of the proposed theoretical model. Two important pieces of evidence (the delay of the success of wine e-commerce as a direct point of sale and the current major success of wine e-commerce as a virtual social community) suggest the need for a different way to approach wine consumers/purchasers on Italian WECSs, in particular by adopting an SDL perspective, considering the strong engagement of the investigated wineries in social media activities. To this end, the main outcome of this study, which is the proposed theoretical model, seems useful for designing, implementing, and verifying the application of SDL to wine e-commerce, serving as a generator/developer of the increasing involvement of the various stakeholders, especially wine consumers/purchasers, for global value cocreation on WECSs.

the examples provided above are naturally changeable, especially if the rapid evolution of ICT is considered; for example, just a few years ago, the advent of mobile commerce was imaginable, but its diffusion was unpredictable in technological, social, and psychological terms (Pelet et al., 2014). Then, for different contexts, different parameters are possible for empirically verifying the application of a single interpretation but only after finding investigative coherence between the interpretation and parameter. 5. A test application of the theoretical model The conceptual framework presented above was the object of a test analyzing the e-commerce approach of the most important wineries in Italy, investigating in particular the sites of the 30 wineries that registered the highest values of global revenue in 2017 (Mediobanca, 2017). A research team with specific competence and experience in the wine industry was involved in evaluating the existence (or inexistence) of the application of the 11 foundational premises for each investigated WECS through the verification of the existence or inexistence of the associated parameter(s). The internet presence of each winery was verified by searching on Google for the corporate URL (uniform resource locator), using as a keyword the institutional name of the winery (to allow the repeatability of the investigation). After finding the corporate URL, a careful visit to the website homepage provided evidence (or did not provide evidence) of the link to the e-commerce site, and this direct link was assumed to be an indication of the engagement of the winery in the e-commerce strategy. Clearly, the search for the wine shop URL was as careful as possible, but it is possible that the wine shop URL existed but was not easy to find. Naturally, from the point of view of internet marketing, a link that exists but is not easy to find is evidence of an incorrect or low-profile strategy (please note also that this web investigation took place in September 2018). After finding the e-commerce URL, the theoretical model was applied, to verify the possible correspondence of the SDL FPs to WECS function. The schematic collection of the results of the empirical investigation is provided in Table 3. From the investigation, evidence emerged that only 5 corporate URLs (Mezzacorona, CAVIT, IWB - Italian Wine Brands, Cantina Sociale Cooperativa di Soave, and Villa Sandi) of the thirty investigated clearly show a direct link to their own WECS. Obviously, this is not necessarily evidence that the other 25 wineries are not involved in e-commerce solutions, but it is clear proof that these wineries have not advertised a WECS on their corporate URL, maybe for specific reasons connected to commercial strategies. Most probably, the most important motivation for this absence is to avoid the risk of cannibalization with respect to traditional distribution channels. In fact, in many cases, it is evidently possible to find the map of the winery's distributors (wholesalers, retailers, or even their own wine shop). Another motivation could be to avoid the risk of downgrading the winery brand and/or the wine brand, based on the belief that the internet atmosphere, according to some interviewees in other studies, could not be coherent with the ‘poetry’ of wine (Cagnina et al., 2016). Instead, a diffuse use of social media has emerged, but this use naturally has a great, if not exclusive, emphasis on communication rather than on commerce (for example, Casa Vinicola Zonin, Gruppo Santa Margherita, and Compagnia de' Frescobaldi).

7. Research limitations and implications This study has two main limitations. The first limitation concerns the methodological objective of the research and derives from the conceptual building of the theoretical model, with its subsequent ‘parameterization’ for the empirical investigation. Although developed through a very specific analysis based on specific expertise in the wine sector and then subjected to an online test with several wine consumers/purchasers, this theory is quite innovative, and surely needs further exhaustive testing. The second limitation concerns the investigation objective of the research and derives from the number of wineries under investigation (30) and from the national perimeter of study (only Italian wineries). In truth, the latter limit depends on the nature of Italy as an extreme case (one of the most important countries with regard to wine production and one of the least important countries with regard to wine e-commerce). Future research will allow better focus and detail on these current limitations. In terms of scientific implications, this research suggests centering further studies even more on the application of SDL to WECSs, making great use of relational marketing (Torres & Kunc, 2016), educational marketing (Festa, Cuomo, Metallo, & Festa, 2016), and experiential marketing (Platania, Platania, & Santisi, 2016). In fact, wine choice, purchase, and consumption are activities that are very sensitive to cultural approaches and value cocreation, the latter of which is one the fundamentals of SDL; this approach seems to be a stimulating

6. Discussion of findings Italy is one of the most important wine producers in the world, perhaps even the most important, if both its quantitative (volume) and qualitative (ampelography) characteristics are considered. However, electronic commerce for wine in Italy is still underdeveloped (Tannico, 2015), being on average very far from the figures achieved in other 5

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Table 3 The investigation of the 30 most important Italian wineries (on a turnover basis). Occurrences are Yes or No. FP 1

FP 2

FP 3

FP 4

FP 5

FP 6

FP 7

FP 8

FP 9

FP 10

FP 11

Σ

www.riuniteciv.com www.caviro.com www.antinori.it www.zonin1821.it www.mezzacorona.it > online shop www.cavit.it > online shop www.fratellimartini.it www.botter.it www.italianwinebrands.it > www.giordanovini.it www.enoitalia.it www.santamargherita.com www.gruppocevico.com www.cantinasoave.it > www.shop.roccasveva.it

– – – – Y Y – – Y – – – Y

– – – – Y Y – – Y – – – Y

– – – – Y Y – – Y – – – Y

– – – – Y Y – – Y – – – Y

– – – – Y Y – – Y – – – Y

– – – – Y Y – – Y – – – Y

– – – – N N – – Y – – – Y

– – – – Y Y – – Y – – – Y

– – – – N N – – Y – – – N

– – – – Y Y – – Y – – – Y

– – – – N N – – Y – – – N

– – – – 8 8 – – 11 – – – 9

www.collisgroup.it www.schenkitalia.it www.frescobaldi.com mgm.wine/it/home www.ruffino.com www.tenutelunelli.it www.la-vis.com www.contrispumanti.com www.lamarca.it/ www.villasandi.it > online shop castellobanfi.com www.quargentan.com it.mionetto.com www.vivocantine.it www.gancia.it www.masi.it www.serenawines.it

– – – – – – – – – Y – – – – – – –

– – – – – – – – – Y – – – – – – –

– – – – – – – – – Y – – – – – – –

– – – – – – – – – Y – – – – – – –

– – – – – – – – – Y – – – – – – –

– – – – – – – – – Y – – – – – – –

– – – – – – – – – N – – – – – – –

– – – – – – – – – Y – – – – – – –

– – – – – – – – – N – – – – – – –

– – – – – – – – – Y – – – – – – –

– – – – – – – – – N – – – – – – –

– – – – – – – – – 8 – – – – – – –

Id.

Winery

Corporate URL > E-Commerce URL

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Cantine Riunite & Civ Caviro Palazzo Antinori Casa Vinicola Zonin Mezzacorona CAVIT Cantina Viticoltori Fratelli Martini Secondo Luigi Casa Vinicola Botter Carlo & C. IWB - Italian Wine Brands Enoitalia Gruppo Santa Margherita Gruppo CEVICO Cantina Sociale Cooperativa di Soave Collis Veneto Wine Group Schenk Italia Compagnia de' Frescobaldi Mondo del Vino Ruffino Lunelli La Vis Contri Spumanti La Marca Vini e Spumanti Villa Sandi Gruppo Banfi Quargentan Mionetto Vivo Cantine F.lli Gancia Masi Agricola VS - Vinicola Serena

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Table 4 - Italian wine e-commerce's most important operators (on a 2016 turnover basis). Source: inumeridelvino.it. (EUR/1000, %)

IWB B2C Division Tannico (eboox) XtraWine CallMeWine MondoVino (ViniTop) 3nd (Vino75) Svinando DesignWine (Vinitaly …) DoYouWine ClubWine - SoundTaste

Turnover

Gross margin

EBIT

2014

2015

2016

2014

2015

2016

2014

2015

2016

5760 2468 2486 1791 974 151 666 263 190 1600

5598 4766 3224 2545 1711 1294 921 566 218 1944

7337 6814 4274 3459 1703 1443 994 654 172 –

– 32% 19% 25% 27% 34% 31% 54% 28% 15%

– 26% 20% 24% 23% 17% 37% 69% 31% 13%

– 26% 19% 24% 23% 15% 35% 51% 33% –

– −21% 3% 4% 2% −77% −21% −87% 39% 2%

– −27% 1% 1% 0% −47% −10% −48% 10% 1%

– −16% 2% 1% 0% −35% 1% −44% −4% –

(when present) with regard to value cocreation, which can be addressed mainly by using social media, whose current use by the same wineries already seems very interesting (FleishmanHillard, 2014). In fact, as seen in the test/investigation, with the sole exception of IWB - Italian Wine Brands, the WECSs of the most important Italian wineries have not adopted a conversion strategy from (corporate) social networks to (corporate) social commerce without enhancing the potential patrimony of social relationships already available. This possibility/opportunity for integration could reveal interesting scenarios by combining different marketing, communication, and distribution solutions, not only with reference to internet environments (from social network to social commerce) but also with reference to traditional channels (for example, ordering online and collecting offline). In other words, the concept of serving, which is the basis of service-dominant logic, could also prevent cannibalization phenomena among distribution channels, by naturally adopting an appropriate position on the internet (Deleersnyder, Geyskens, Gielens, & Dekimpe, 2002).

perspective for planning, achieving, and increasing the successful performance of WECSs (as the double evidence for IWB - Italian Wine Brands clearly demonstrates). Possible improvement of the research could concern investigations of panels of wine consumers, whether already purchasers or not, to evaluate the level of the application of a single FP to the WECS under investigation. In fact, in the current research, there is only the verification of the existence or inexistence of the parameter(s) as proof of the application. Further research could also consider other categories of wine ecommerce operators (i.e., intermediaries), considering that their performance is currently higher than that of wineries. Most likely, continuing to adopt the SDL point of view, the focus of related research should be more on ‘service’ than on ‘wine’, just because of the ‘intermediaries’. In terms of managerial implications, the model can work as a checklist for the evaluation of the orientation to value cocreation (according to SDL) of WECSs. Furthermore, for the managers of Italian wineries, the study has highlighted the current gap of their WECS 6

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8. Conclusion

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Giuseppe Festa is an Assistant Professor of Management at the Department of Economic and Statistical Sciences of the University of Salerno (Italy, EU). He holds a PhD in Economics and Management of Public Organizations from the University of Salerno, where he is the Scientific Director of the Postgraduate Course in ‘Wine Business’ and the Vice-Director of the Second Level Master's Degree in ‘Management of Healthcare Organizations - Daosan’. He is also the Chairman of the Euromed Research Interest Committee on Wine Business. His research interests focus mainly on wine business, information systems, and healthcare management. Maria Teresa Cuomo, PhD, is an Associate Professor of ‘Economics and Management’ at the Department of Economic and Statistical Sciences of the University of Salerno, where she teaches ‘Management’ and ‘Marketing’. She teaches also at the Business School of the ‘Bicocca’ University in Milan. She has been Visiting Professor at the Hull Business School (Yorkshire, England, UK) and at the Business School of the University of Middlesex (London, UK). She is Member of several Editorial Committees of national and international journals. She has been rewarded with the Best Paper Award at GIKA Conference 2016. She has published in top journals, national and international, about: corporate reputation, managerial issues, wine marketing, consumer behavior, corporate and investment assessment. She has presented papers and research outcomes at numerous Conferences all around the world (e.g. USA, Canada, Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Singapore, Europe, etc.). She carries out research, consultancy, and training to various organizations (both public and private) on finance, restructuring operations, business crises, investment assessment, market research, and marketing. Gerardino Metallo is a Full Professor of ‘Management’ and ‘Corporate Finance’ at the Department of Economic and Statistical Sciences of the University of Salerno, where he has been Head of Department for 6 years. He is Member of several Editorial Committees of national and international journals. He has been awarded with the Best Paper Award at GIKA Conference 2016. He has published in top journals, national and international, about: corporate finance, managerial issues, wine business, corporate and investment assessment. He conducts research, consultancy, and training to various organizations (both public and private) on finance, restructuring operations, business crises, and investment assessment.

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